Disclaimer: This is a general citation for reference purposes. Please consult the most recent edition of your style manual for the proper formatting of the type of source you are citing. If the date given in the citation does not match the date on the digital item, use the more accurate date below the digital item.

Disclaimer: This is a general citation for reference purposes. Please consult the most recent edition of your style manual for the proper formatting of the type of source you are citing. If the date given in the citation does not match the date on the digital item, use the more accurate date below the digital item.

Disclaimer: This is a general citation for reference purposes. Please consult the most recent edition of your style manual for the proper formatting of the type of source you are citing. If the date given in the citation does not match the date on the digital item, use the more accurate date below the digital item.

In spite of the novelty of Samara's cosmopolitan guests, the talk of
the city on our arrival was focused on a proclamation pasted broadcast
on bulletin boards and stone walls. Copies of this document were at a
premium, and here and there corners were torn away as souvenirs. From
a complete text, I had the following translation made into English:
DECREE
'This decree is proclaimed by the Free Association of Anarchists
of the city of Saratoff, in compliance with the decision of the Soviet of
Peasants', Soldiers' and Workmen's Deputies of Kronstadt regarding
the abolition of the private possession of women.' (Saratoff, with a
population of 250,000 lies 200 miles southwest of Samara on the Volga
River.)
Mr. Sayler then gives a verbatim translation of the "decree" in all the revolting details which the press has taken
such special care to publish broadside throughout the United
States.
Mr. Sayler then describes his personal experiences with
the group of anarchists under whose name the "decree" was
published:
An astonishing document, inexplicable and incredible anywhere
except in Russia today. And even in Russia the explanation was difficult and elusive.
In quest of an explanation, however, I dropped into the Anarchists'
clubhouse in Samara one morning with Smith and Humphries of the *Y.'
Not so very remotely, the luxurious and commodious building had been
the home of one of Samara's millionaires, but the Anarchists had decided
it would make an admirable clearing house for their social and political
activities, and by virtue of their imposing numbers and power they had
been permitted by the Bolsheviki to dispossess the owner and move in
themselves. And so here they were, flying their black flag at the front
door, just a few feet away from the Roman Catholic church of the city!
Russia abounds in paradoxes today, but I doubt whether a stranger
contrast could be found in all that stricken land.
Inside we found reading rooms and study rooms and dispensers of
voluminous Anarchist 'literature' and propaganda. In one room a group
of the leaders, strange-eyed, alert men and women of the fanatic type,
gathered to ask us the latest news of Tom Mooney and of America's
arch-Anarchists, Emma Goldman, Ben Reitman and Alexander Berk-
man. Humphries volunteered the desired information, but I was too
overwhelmed by this uncanny reversal of accepted social phenomena to
do more than stand agape as I would at an engrossing drama. I had no
fear. Instead of brutality, the faces of our hosts reflected a strange
spiritual quality akin to madness. But I felt a considerable relief when
we reached the street again.
Before we left, a copy of a Proclamation in answer to the one purporting to come from the Saratoff Anarchists was thrust into our hands
in reply to our questions concerning the document quoted above. This
reply, translated into English, reads:
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